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.... in spite of the winter storm warning and the phrase "no uneccessary travel," you still have to get out and see how crappy the roads are before turing around and deciding it's really not safe to drive 20 miles to Aikido. (Or is that a sign my addiction is weakening?)

... your dojo is closed for the week over the holidays, but Sensei lets you take a key, and 7 of you turn up for 3 hours in the evening to train together. (Another session planned for tonight, too. :-) )

You know you are addicted when you buy a Granola bar from the vending machine and are disappointed it dropped right down without getting hung up. Because you did not get a chance to demonstrate your skills of placing your hand on the machine frame and making the thing drop with no noise. My friend wanted to how I did that, I invited him to class.

You find yourself rather unexpectedly dancing with a shihan and you calm your nerves by telling yourself it is just a different kind of ukemi. Later that night you consider how you could turn it into a, "It had to be felt" thread....

1) After each class, you bombard your Sensei with plenty of questions.
2) You complain if you can't go to class this week
3) One of the most frequent things you say to your parents is "grab my wrist".
4) Taking your school bag off your back looks more like a Naname Kokyu Nage than anything else.
5) You think that doing 6 Aikidō classes per week is an excellent reason for not going anywhere for the holidays.
6) Several times a day, you're caught in Seiza position, with a Bokken in your belt, just about to deliver a full hearted Tsuka Ate into the solar plexus of an imaginary opponent.
7) You can wake up all the people in your house just by doing a Kiai.
8) Often you write or in your notebooks.
9) You dream of one day training with people like Moriteru Ueshiba, Hitohiro Saito and others.
10) You think Shikko is a very efficient means of moving around.
11) You think that crowds are excellent opportunities to train Tai Sabaki, Tai no Henka and Irimi Tenkan.
12) Daily toughts often include things like "hmmm... So basically, Aikidō is Daoism in action".
13) You say Domo Arigato Gozaimashita after diner.

All of these criteria apply PERFECTLY to me. So... I may indeed be an Aikidō addict.

I'm sure I've contributed to this thread at some point, but here is my post for 2018. Most are mine. A few are friends.

You automatically recognise when you see the older version of 気 written on a book (氣).
Your son and you both have a day off, so you take him to Aikido instead of to the park.
Your son does ikkyo to you when playing naturally.
You have mats in your living room instead of carpet.
Whenever you're standing, you check your posture, "extend ki" ("remove the slack") and start doing subtle exercises.
You have to avoid doing Aiki Age on anyone who shakes your hand because it has become automatic.
You're jealous of the guy who goes to 17 Aikido classes a week because you can only go to to 5 or 6.
You go to 17 Aikido classes a week.
Your very tiny Aikido-practicing daughter is bullied at elementary school. She beats the crap out of the bullies and when the teachers try and get her off them, they are physically unable to.
Your 5yo son is better at kokyu-ho than most of the teenagers who have been practicing since before he was born are.

Aikido chat: https://discord.gg/pPYTFh2Naturally having something useful to say is like natural responses during training: It takes much practice.